This application relates to the art of golf clubs and, more particularly, to the art of fitting a person for desired qualities in a set of regular golf clubs.
Golf clubs are typically manufactured in a variety of standard types. For example, any given brand of golf clubs may be stocked with shafts of either stiff or regular flexibility, and with heads of flat, medium or upright lies. Customized golf clubs are also available with special features, such as shorter or longer shafts than standard types, and shafts of higher flexibility or stiffness than standard types.
A golf club head provides optimum performance when the center of the head sole is parallel to the surface on which the ball rests, and tangent to the bottom surface of the ball, at the moment of head impact with the ball. When club lie and shaft length are correctly fitted to an individual golfer's swing plane, optimum performance of the club head is achieved.
A main objective in golf is the transfer of the maximum amount of energy from a golfer's swing to the head of the club at the moment of impact with the ball. Accomplishing this objective requires the correct shaft flex in the golf club. The most important factor in determining correct shaft flex is the speed of the golfer's swing. For every head speed, there is a different optimum shaft flex. If the optimum shaft flex is not used, the golfer is not maximizing his full swing potential.
It would be desirable to have simple arrangements for determining the optimum golf club lie, shaft length and shaft flexibility for each individual person. This would make it possible for a golf pro to determine whether a particular golfer should be fitted with clubs of a standard type, or clubs with standard and customized features.